Contoured insole construction and method of manufacturing same

ABSTRACT

A footwear construction apparatus and method includes a driving mechanism for moving a sheet of continuous material along a cutting path by a pair of closely spaced apart form factor rollers and then using them to simultaneously deform the sheet of continuous material and to guide a flexible continuous knife belt disposed within the cutting path into cutting engagement with the sheet along a desired contour formed by the pair of rollers to separate a contoured single piece footwear construction from the sheet of continuous material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This application relates to footwear, and more particularly to a novelcontoured insole construction and a method of manufacturing the insoleconstruction.

2. Background of Prior Art

Various insole constructions and methods of manufacturing such insoleconstructions are well known in the art. However, there is a need forimproving the manufacturing process and for providing a single piececontoured insole construction in a fast and highly productive manner.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A footwear construction apparatus and method includes a drivingmechanism for moving a sheet of continuous material along a cutting pathby a pair of closely spaced apart form factor rollers and then usingthem to simultaneously deform the sheet of continuous material and toguide a flexible continuous knife belt disposed within the cutting pathinto cutting engagement with the continuous sheet along a desiredcontour formed by the pair of rollers to separate a contoured singlepiece footwear construction from the sheet of continuous material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above mentioned features and steps of the invention and the mannerof attaining them will become apparent, and the invention itself will bebest understood by reference to the following description of thepreferred embodiment(s) of the invention in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a method of manufacturing a contouredinsole construction in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a method of manufacturing a contoureditem in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the method of manufacturing thecontoured footwear item of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is side elevation view of a footwear item, which is constructedin accordance with another preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of another footwear item, which isconstructed in accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of a method of manufacturing a contouredinsole construction in accordance with still yet another preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of a holding tray taken substantiallyalong line 7-7 as shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a top plane view of a blank insole form utilized in themanufacturing method illustrated in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a top plane view of the top of the holding tray illustrated inFIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a top plane view of the bottom of the holding trayillustrated in FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of the manufacturing method of FIG. 1;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of the manufacturing method of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic view of the intersecting relationship betweena pair of sheet cutting path illustrated in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An apparatus and method of manufacturing a single piece contouredfootwear item are disclosed. The following description is presented toenable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. Forpurposes of explanation, specific nomenclature is set forth to provide athorough understanding of the present invention. Descriptions ofspecific applications are provided only as examples. Variousmodifications to the preferred embodiments will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein maybe applied to other embodiments and applications without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention isnot intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and featuresdisclosed herein.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 1, there isshown an insole construction apparatus 10 for manufacturing a contouredsingle-piece insole 110 in accordance with a novel method ofmanufacturing 1110 as best seen in FIG. 11. The footwear makingapparatus 10 facilitates the construction of the single-piece insoleconstruction 110 in an extremely fast and highly efficient manner aswill be explained hereinafter in greater detail.

Considering now the apparatus 10 in greater detail with reference toFIG. 1, the apparatus 10 generally includes a sheet driving mechanism 12and a knife belt driving mechanism 14, which cooperate with one anotherto cause a sheet of foam or EVA material 15 to be driven along a sheetfeeding or cutting path 16 and into cutting engagement with a continuouscutting belt 18. The continuous cutting belt 18 is a replaceable cuttingbelt, which forms part of the knife belt driving mechanism 14.

As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 13, the continuous cutting belt 18 travelsalong a sheet engaging or cutting path 20 which is disposed at about anangle θ relative to the sheet-cutting path 16. In this regard, thesheet-cutting path 16 and the sheet-cutting path 20 intersect with oneanother at about an angle θ, which is between about 30 degrees and 90degrees. A more preferred angle θ is between about 45 degrees and 90degrees, and the most preferred angle θ is about 90 degrees. Althoughthe path 20 is described as a sheet-cutting path, it should beunderstood that the belt 18 does not engage the continuous sheet 15except during those times when the belt 18 is flexed under the force ofthe sheet driving mechanism 12 into engagement with the sheet 15 as bestseen in FIG. 3 and as will be explained hereinafter in greater detail.

Considering now the sheet driving mechanism 12 in greater detail withreference to FIG. 1, the sheet driving mechanism 12 is disposed betweena continuous sheet supply roller (not shown) and a continuous sheet takeup roller (not shown). The supply roller holds a roll of the continuousmaterial 15, which is pulled from a leading edge along the sheet-cuttingpath 16 through the sheet driving mechanism 12 and onto the take uproller to complete a continuous sheet-feeding path through the sheetdriving mechanism 12. A pair of closely spaced apart rollers, includinga positive form factor roller 22 and a negative form factor roller 24continuously engage the continuous sheet 15 with a sufficient frictionalforce to pull the sheet from the supply roller and drive it along thesheet cutting path 16 onto the take up roller.

As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, the positive form factor roller 22includes a pair of contoured insole forms 32 and 34, which are removablyattached to roller 22 by means not shown. The negative form factorroller 24 includes another pair of contoured insole forms 42 and 44,which are removably attached to roller 24. For the purpose of easy inillustrating the orientation of the rollers 22 and 24 and the forms 32,34, 42, and 44, a generic positive form factor roller PFFR and a genericnegative form factor roller NFFR, are illustrated in FIG. 3 with genericpositive forms PF1 and PF2 and generic negative forms NF1 and NF2respectively. In this manner, easy reference may be made to the specificillustrations in FIGS. 1-2 and 4 to understand the relationship betweenrollers and forms.

As best seen in FIG. 4, the contoured form 32 and contoured form 42 areset apart from one another relative to their rollers 22 and 24respectively, to engage the sheet of continuous material 15 at differenttimes. In this regard, they are offset by about 90 degrees so that upona ninety-degree rotation of the rollers 22 and 24 (which roll inunison), either a positive form or a negative form will be engaging thesheet 15 of continuous material. This rotational offset providessufficient frictional force on the continuous sheet 15 to pull it fromthe supply roller and to drive it along the sheet-cutting path 16 to betaken up on the take up roller. Those skilled in the art will understandthat by offsetting the forms 32 and 34 on the positive form factorroller 22 by about 180 degrees, a sufficient gap is provided along thecontinuous sheet 15 to separate individual ones of the single-piececontoured footwear items 110 produced by the cutting action of thecontinuous knife belt 18 as will be explained hereinafter in greaterdetail.

Considering now the method 1110 of manufacturing the single-piececontoured footwear item 110 in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1,4, 8 and 11, the manufacturing process begins at a start step 1112 wherean operator sets up the apparatus 10 as described earlier with the sheetof continuous material 15 in engagement with the sheet driving mechanism12 and extending between the feed roller and the take up roller. Thedriving mechanism 12, at a driving step 1114, is then actuated to causethe sheet of continuous material 15 to be driven along the sheet cuttingpath 16 by the rollers 22 and 24 respectively.

At about the same time as the sheet of continuous material 15 begins tobe driven along the sheet cutting path 16, the knife belt drivingmechanism 14 is also actuated at a belt driving step 1116, to cause thecontinuous knife belt 18 to be driven along the sheet cutting path 20.

In unison now, as the rollers 22 and 24 engage the sheet 15, the forms32 and 34 in an alternating rhythm flex the continuous knife belt 18into engagement with the sheet 15, which is simultaneously deformed inthe same alternating manner by the forms 32 and 34 respectively. In thisregard, as one of the forms, for example form 32 deforms a portion ofthe sheet 15 into a desired contoured shape, the deformed section of thesheet 15 is brought into simultaneous engagement with the cutting edgeof the knife belt 18. Accordingly, at a cutting step 1120 the cuttingedge of the knife belt 18 engages the sheet 15 and deviates from thepath 20 to follow along a deform path indicated generally at 82 (FIG. 3)which is defined by the contoured protuberance provided by the form 32.

As the sheet 15 continues to move along the sheet cutting path 16 whilein cutting engagement with the knife belt 18, which is now travelingalong the deform path 82, the cutting action of the knife belt 18separates the deformed section 110 from the sheet 15 at a separatingstep 1122. The separated deformed section, which has been removed fromthe sheet 15, is the single-piece contoured footwear item 110.

At a decision step 1124 a determination is made whether to repeat thesteps 1114, 116, 1118, 1120, and 1122 to manufacture anothersingle-piece contoured footwear item 110. This determination is madebased upon the action of a trip switch (not shown) that provides anindication that there is an insufficient amount of the continuous sheet15 to continue the manufacturing process. If there is a sufficientamount of continuous sheet 15, the process returns to step 1114 andcontinues as previously described. If there is not a sufficient amountof continuous sheet 15, the process goes to an end step 1126 that causesthe sheet driving mechanism 12 and the knife belt driving mechanism 14to be stopped. The manufacturing process 1110 is an automated process.

Although in this preferred embodiment the separate deformed section isdescribed as a single-piece contoured footwear item 110, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that other contoured items couldalso be manufactured in the same manner. For example, in FIG. 2 there isillustrated an apparatus 210, which is identical to apparatus 10 exceptthat it includes different forms 62 and 64 respectively, whichfacilitate the manufacture of an article of manufacture, such as thearticle 310. It is also contemplated that the forms attached to therollers can be constructed to facilitate the manufacture of items withdifferent contoured shapes. For example as best seen in FIG. 4, there isillustrated a contoured footwear item 610 which includes a raised outerlip perimeter region indicted generally at 688 and a lower contouredfoot-receiving base region 690 bounded by the raised outer lip perimeterregion 688. As another example as best seen in FIG. 5, there isillustrated a contoured footwear item 710, which includes a raised footreceiving base region 790 bounded by a lower outer lip perimeter region788. Therefore, there in no intention of limiting the scope of thepreferred embodiment to the manufacturer of only footwear items as otheritems of manufacture having a contoured form are contemplated within thetrue scope and spirit of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 6, there isillustrated an insole construction apparatus 2110 for manufacturing acontoured single-piece insole 2810 as best seen in FIG. 7 in accordancewith a novel method of manufacturing 910. The footwear making apparatus2110 facilitates the construction of the single-piece insoleconstruction 2810 in a semi-automatic manner as will be explainedhereinafter in greater detail.

Considering now the apparatus 2110 in greater detail with reference toFIG. 6, the apparatus 10 generally includes a driving mechanism 2120coupled to a pair of closely spaced drive rollers 2122 and 2124respectively. The drive rollers 2122 and 2124 cooperate with one anotherto cause an insole carrier mold 2115 (which is introduced into a frontnip between the rollers 2122, 2124 to be sandwiched therebetween andpulled along a cutting path P into proximity of a cutting blade 2118. Inthis regard, as the mold 2115 is pulled and sandwiched between therollers 2122 and 2124, a blank insole 810 (FIG. 8), carried by the mold2115, is distorted into a predetermined distorted shape. Thepredetermined distorted shape is so distorted so as to allow a portionof the blank insole 810 to engage the blade 2118 with a sufficient forceto cut away a desired portion of the blank insole 810, which in turn,results in a single-piece contoured insole, such as the contoured insole2810, being formed.

After the distorted portion of the blank insole 810 has been cutaway andseparated, the mold 2115 continues along the path P and into the nip ofanother pair of rollers (not shown) which in turn cause the mold 2115and contoured insole 2810 by means (now shown) to be discharge from theapparatus 2110.

Considering now the mold 2115 in greater detail with reference to FIGS.7-10, the mold 2115 generally includes a generally rectangularly shapedbase member 2130 with a centrally disposed topside cutout 2132 and acentrally disposed bottom side cutout 2134. The topside cutout 2132 andthe bottom side cutout 2134 are disposed opposite to one another and arespaced from one another by a thin sheet of resilient material 2136.

The topside cutout 2132 and the bottom side cutout 2134 are configuredin the shape of an insole in order to facilitate holding, deforming, andcutting the blank insole 810. In this regard, the topside cutout 2132that has a sufficient depth dimension to retain the insole 810 in placewithin the carrier mold 2115 as it passes between the rollers 2122 and2124 as previously described.

As best seen in FIG. 7, the bottom side cutout 2134 has a deformingmember 2138 that extends along the entire perimeter of the cutout 2134.The deforming member 2138 is composed of a hard non-resilient materialthat will not deform or lose its shape when the mold 2115 passes betweenthe roller 2122 and 2134. In this regard, the insole 810 deforms inshape when pressed against the deforming member 2138 by the rollers 2122and 2124. More particularly, an outer portion of the insole blank 810 ispushed under the force of the rollers 2122, 2124 and distorted by thedistorting member 2138 to a position that extends above the upper planeof the mold carrier 2115. In this regard, as the mold carrier 2115passes below the cutting blade 2118, the blade 2118 severs the distortedouter portion of the insole blank 810 that extends above the upper planeof the mold carrier 2115 from the blank 810. As a result of removingthis outer section from the blank 810 an contoured insole, such as thecontoured insole 2810 is formed.

Considering now the novel method of using the apparatus 2110 tomanufacture a contoured insole, such as the contoured insole 610, ingreater detail with reference to FIG. 12, the manufacturing processbegins at a start step 912 where a user activates the apparatus 2110 tocause the drive mechanism 2120 to drive the rollers 2122 and 2124.

Next, at a placing step 914, a user places a single piece non-contouredinsole blank, such as the insole blank 810, into the mold carrier 2115.More specifically, the user places the insole blank 810 into the uppercutout 2132 so that the blank 810 is supported from below by the thinsheet 2136 and the deforming member 2138.

The user then moves the mold carrier 2115 into the front nip between therollers 2122 and 2124 allowing the roller to grasp and pull the carrier2115 along the cutting path P. In this regard, the carrier 2115 ispulled between the rollers 2122 and 2124, which in cooperation with thedistorting member 2138, cause an inner portion of the insole blank 810to be distorted and pushed above the plane of the carrier 2115 as thecarrier exits the rear nip from between the rollers.

Next, at a cutting step 918, the blade 2118, which is positioned at therear nip of the rollers 2122 and 2124, slices the deformed insole blank810 along a desired contour form resulting from distorting the blank 810to form a single piece contoured insole, such as the contoured insole2810.

Finally, when the carrier 2115 is discharged from the apparatus 2110,the user, at a removing step 920, removes the contoured insole from thecarrier 2115. The user then places another blank insole into the nowempty insole cutout 2132 and repeats the process to form anothercontoured insole.

While this invention has been shown fully and completely with specialemphasis on certain preferred embodiments, it should be understood thatwithin the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described herein.

1. An insole construction apparatus, comprising: a sheet drivingmechanism including a positive form factor drive roller and a negativeform factor drive roller for continuously engaging a sheet of materialto transport it along a cutting path; a belt driving mechanism forcausing a flexible knife belt to be driven continuously along a sheetengaging path; and wherein at least one of said positive form factordrive roller and said negative form factor drive roller include at leastone contoured form member for simultaneously deforming said sheet ofmaterial and guiding said flexible knife belt into cutting engagementwith the deformed sheet of material to form a single-piece contouredfootwear construction.
 2. The insole construction apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein said single-piece contoured footwear construction is acontoured insole.
 3. The insole construction apparatus according toclaim 2, wherein said contoured insole includes a raised outer lipperimeter region and a lowered foot-receiving base bounded by saidraised outer lip perimeter region.
 4. The insole construction apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein said single-piece contoured insoleincludes a raised foot receiving base bounded by a lowered outer lipperimeter region.
 5. A method of construction, comprising: driving asheet of continuous material along a sheet-cutting path; driving acontinuous flexible knife belt along another sheet-cutting path; andsimultaneously engaging said sheet of continuous material and saidflexible knife belt to deform a portion of said sheet into a desiredcontour and to flex said flexible knife belt into cutting engagementwith the deformed portion of said sheet to separate it from saidcontinuous sheet.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein theseparated portion of said continuous sheet is a contoured single piecefootwear construction.
 7. The method of construction according to claim6, wherein said contoured single-piece footwear construction is acontoured single piece insole.
 8. The method of construction accordingto claim 6, wherein said contoured single-piece insole includes a raisedouter lip perimeter region and a lowered foot-receiving base regionbounded by said raised outer lip perimeter region.
 9. The method ofconstruction according to claim 6, wherein said contoured single-pieceinsole includes a raised foot receiving base region bounded by a loweredouter lip perimeter region.
 10. A method of construction, comprising:providing a sheet holding tray, said sheet holding tray having a formfactor cutout on one of its sides and a deforming member cutout on theother one of its sides, wherein said sheet holding tray includes adeforming member disposed at about said deforming member cutout;providing a pair of closely spaced apart rollers; providing a materialcutting knife at about an exit nip of said closely spaced apart rollers;providing a blank form sheet of material, said sheet being a singlepiece construction with a uniform in thickness throughout and having aninsole shape; placing said blank form sheet in said form factor cutoutsupported from below by said deforming member; placing said sheetholding tray into an entrance nip between said pair of rollers to allowsaid rollers to engage said sheet holding tray and transport it towardsaid material cutting knife; deforming said blank form sheet with saiddeforming member to form an obverse desired contour in said sheet as itpasses between said rollers; making a continuous cut in said sheet alongsaid obverse desired contour as it passes from between said rollers intosaid cutting blade to form a contoured single-piece footwearconstruction.
 11. The method of construction according to claim 10,wherein said contoured single-piece footwear construction is a contouredsingle piece insole.
 12. The method of construction according to claim11, wherein said contoured single-piece insole includes a raised outerlip perimeter region and a lowered foot-receiving base region bounded bysaid raised outer lip perimeter region.
 13. The method of constructionaccording to claim 11, wherein said contoured single-piece insoleincludes a raised foot receiving base bounded by a lowered outer lipperimeter region.
 14. A method of construction, comprising: moving asheet of continuous material along a cutting path by a pair of closelyspaced apart form factor rollers; using said pair of form factor rollersto simultaneously deform said sheet of continuous material and to guidea flexible continuous knife belt into cutting engagement with said sheetalong a desired contour formed by said pair of form factor rollers toseparate a contoured single piece footwear construction from sheet ofcontinuous material.
 15. The method of construction according to claim14, wherein said contoured single-piece footwear construction is acontoured single piece insole.
 16. The method of construction accordingto claim 15, wherein said contoured single-piece insole includes araised outer lip perimeter region and a lowered foot-receiving baseregion bounded by said raised outer lip perimeter region.
 17. The methodof construction according to claim 15, wherein said contouredsingle-piece insole includes a raised foot receiving base region boundedby a lowered outer lip perimeter region.
 18. The method of constructionaccording to claim 16, wherein said flexible continuous belt knifetravels along another cutting path; and wherein said cutting path andsaid another cutting path intersect one another at about an angle of Edegrees.
 19. The method of construction according to claim 18, wherein θis between about 30 degrees and 90 degrees.
 20. The method ofconstruction according to claim 19, wherein a more preferred θ isbetween about 45 degrees and 90 degrees.
 21. The method of constructionaccording to claim 20, wherein a most preferred θ is about 90 degrees.22. A insole product formed by a process according to claim 15.